‘Understood, boss. I’ll drop a word in his ear.’
‘Don’t be too friendly about it. I know he was your mentor, but you’re his line manager, not the other way around. Now, since he has given us this information. . you know what it suggests?’
‘I think so,’ she said, ‘if it was the Security Service that flagged Bazza Brown as off limits. . and who else would it be?’
‘Drugs enforcement,’ the chief suggested, ‘but that’s unlikely. I can and will check it, though. If that was the cause of the red notice, it would have come from Scotland. The head of the SCDEA and I are close. He’ll tell me if it was his mob that were running Brown. Indeed, I’ve got a feeling that if it was them, he’d have been in touch with me by now to let me know.
‘So, let’s say that Bazza was on the books of MI5’s serious crime section. If our speculation that they fixed Beram Cohen up with a new identity is well founded, then he would have as well, and that’s our link.’
‘What do you want me to do about it, boss?’
‘Absolutely nothing,’ Skinner replied, almost before she had finished her question. ‘As far as you’re concerned, you never had the information you just brought me and neither did Dan. He shouldn’t have been given it in the first place, and if he made any written note of his conversation, it must be destroyed.’
‘Yes, sir.’ She rose from the chair that faced the chief constable’s desk. It was low set, so that whoever sat behind the desk was always looking down on his visitors, an intimidating tactic that Skinner disliked, and vowed that he would change. ‘Since I was never here,’ she said, ‘I’d better make myself scarce.’
He laughed. ‘You do that, Lottie. Concentrate on the video you told me about. If you can show Bazza Brown meeting Smit and Botha, you can wrap up the inquiry into his murder, and pass that on to Reba Paisley’s office. Why he met them, if we’re right about that, she doesn’t need to know. How they came to know him, that’s completely off limits.’
‘Fine, I’ll report back on the first part as soon as we’ve nailed it down.’
He watched her as she left then reached across his desk for the phone, only to be interrupted by his mobile signalling another incoming text. ‘Done here. Scrubbing up, then on my way. Sarahx.’
No reply needed; he smiled as he put it back in his pocket, then picked up the other instrument, selected ‘direct dial’ and made the call he had been intending.
‘Mario? How are you settling into my old office? Do you like the view? You can see every bugger who comes in and goes out. Useful at times.’
‘Sure,’ the newly appointed ACC conceded, ‘but they can see me.’
‘Not if you angle the blinds right.’
‘I’ll try that. Have you got any other advice for me?’
‘Yeah, keep your eye on David Mackenzie; he’s after your job.’
‘I worked that one out for myself, Bob, quite some time ago. Anything else? Anything serious?’
‘No, but a question. How’s Paula?’
‘Blooming. No sign of delayed shock, post-traumatic stress or any of that crap, I’m relieved to say. Maybe because she’s got too much on her mind. She saw her consultant again this morning, at his request. When he checked her over yesterday, he thought he might have got her dates wrong. Now he’s sure, he’s given her to the end of the week to get the job done herself, or he’s going to induce labour.’
‘They did that with Myra, when she had Alex. As I recall, it started with castor oil. Tell her that; the threat alone might be a trigger.’
‘I will. Now let me ask you one. How’s Aileen? First off, I’m sorry about you two, and about all the other shit. She’s had a very tough forty-eight hours, man.’
Skinner felt his forehead tighten. ‘Are you saying I made it worse?’ he asked.
‘No, absolutely not,’ McGuire insisted. ‘I wasn’t implying that. I understand how things are between you. It was a straight question.’
‘In that case, she’s fine. She and I spoke not that long ago and everything’s okay. We’ve put our situation on the record, so the press will have to be very careful with what they say about her. I know she had that bother at her press conference this morning, but given the trouble the Hatton woman’s been making, it’ll work for her rather than agin her.’
‘Good. Now would you like to come to the point?’
‘What makes you think there is one?’ Skinner asked.
‘How long have we known each other? About fifteen years? I’m not saying you never call me just to pass the time of day, but I don’t recall you ever doing it from the office, not once.’
‘Christ, is that true? You know, McIlhenney said much the same earlier. What does that say about me?’ He sighed. ‘The sad thing is, you’re right. I’ve got a situation here, I need it resolved, but I can’t be bothered going through channels. It would take too long. Instead, I’m looking for a simpler solution. Do you remember a wee guy called Johan Ramsey?’
‘Wee Jo? Of course. A master of his craft, if ever there was one.’
‘It didn’t stop him getting lifted a few times though. Do you know where he is now?’
‘As a matter of fact I do. He’s here in Edinburgh, on parole after his last sentence. We were advised when he was released.’
‘Good,’ Skinner declared. ‘That’s what I wanted to hear.’
‘How come?’ McGuire laughed. ‘What do you want with him?’
‘I want to employ him.’
‘You what?’
‘I mean it. I’ve got a job for him. There’s a safe in my office here. Toni Field had it installed, and only she knew the combination. I don’t have the time to wait for some bloody company in the south of England to free up one of their specialists, so I want to hire one of my own. I’d like you to pick him up, and invite him to join me here tomorrow morning, to see what he can do. Tell him there’s a hundred in it for him, regardless, cash, and that his probation officer will never know. Can you do that for me, ACC McGuire? Make it work and I’ll buy you lunch after your first ACPOS meeting.’
‘Hell, Bob, you don’t need to bribe me to get me to do that. That’s a first, and it’s going in my memoirs.’
‘That’s fine,’ Skinner grunted, ‘but you’d better make it clear to wee Jo that if it winds up in his, then next time he gets sent down, I will make certain, personally, that parole is off the table.’
Thirty-Five
‘In my office, please, Dan,’ Lottie Mann said as she returned to the investigation suite.
‘Absolutely,’ Provan muttered, but too quietly for her to hear, and he rose from his seat and followed her into a small room at the end of the open area.
‘See that friend of yours in CTIS?’ she began, without preamble. ‘Whoever he is, you’d better warn him that where he works careless talk costs lives, and in this case it’s his that’s on the line. On Toni Field’s watch there would probably have been a leak inquiry over what he told you. There won’t be this time, but probably only because Skinner likes you too much to use a nutcracker to get the name out of you.
‘We are not to follow up what you were told. Instead we’re to wrap up Bazza’s murder, pass the file to the fiscal and mark it case closed, then get on with the main investigation, which is still, unlike Field, very much alive. That’s the way it is, Dan. You are from Barcelona. You know nussing.’
‘Ye’ve got the accent wrong,’ the DS said. ‘Ah’m old enough to have seen Fawlty Towers when it wis new. Unfortunately, Lottie, Ah don’t know nothin’. In fact, Ah know too fuckin’ much.’
‘Oh, I know that,’ she laughed. ‘Too much for your own good.’
‘No, love,’ he sighed, ‘for yours.’
She stared at him. ‘What are you on about, Detective Sergeant? Can we just keep up the pretence that I’m your senior officer?’
‘No, we can’t.’
Her eyes narrowed. A spasm of something strange ran through her, and she realised that it was fear. ‘Dan,’ she murmured, ‘what is this?’